minster9

Hi all,I feel like such an idiot. Not very familiar w/laptops at all & not receiving manual w/unit,I got looking underside of unit. 2 latching "doors" slide open in sep. locs. to reveal a battery in 1 compartment & the HD in other. RAM chip under HD if you lift it out & flip over. Didn't try to remove it. Can't find aftermarket RAM chip for CF-45"NJ"48JAM unit is labeled with. [nj emphasis mine]. HD sticker is dated oct.1997. Perhaps the mobo will only support what the reseller sold it as;64 MB RAM,2 GB HD. RAM chip # on applied sticker is 4085676 CE; don't if it's original like HD. Guess I'll check out the sites your readers suggested. I don't wanna put any more than 200$ into it;it's old,but was a gift,works ok. Doesn't look like it's 9 yrs old,hate to get traded out of it for something that might be someone elses problem at the the local computer shop. Hey,thanx for listening. Great site;kinda wonder if newer laptops aren't as tough as the "old-timers"! Steve

ebackhus

1997, eh? This thing likely uses PC66 SODIMMs that can still be bought new.

minster9

thanks for response ebackhus. I checked out panasonic site in canada suggested by a reader & found it very helpful. The unit predates PC66 & uses EDO SODIMM chip.Best price I can find for 128mb chip [max.supported ram] is 105 bucks. I'm thinkin' about it. Specs say my particular unit was built/4gb hard drive,yet it still has an old 2gb hd that the earlier 200mhz units were born with. Someone musta stuck in a 233cpu & 64mb ram,but had budget constraints or maybe a compatibility problem? 2000 professional is hogging up about 80% of the hd. Can I just put in like a 40gb hd that so many websites say will work in the unit? Or just trade the thing in on something newer? Like I said in earlier post,if I can stay under 200 bucks in upgrades,I'll be happy. Any help appreciated,thanks.

Terrister

I do not think I would spend $200 on a laptop that old. For $299 you could buy this one. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...894200&CatId=0

minster9

Terrister,I checked the site you mentioned. Not crazy about refurbs nor Toshiba. I'll probably take it to the local computer shop & trade it in for another Toughbook a little newer. Never liked Windows98,had it in numerous units & had nothing but problems with it. Got 2000 in desktop & laptop,no probs. Dang,I hate to spend money.

Terrister

I just used that as an example. I think you are making a good move on not putting more money into that old a laptop. I think Win 2000 is the oldest OS I would run at this time. Windows 98 is no longer supported or updated by Micro$oft.

TheMatt

You could get windows 200, but in order to take advantage of the Intel SpeedStep or AMD PowerNow! power and heat saving features, you will need Windows XP.

laboye

I believe that Intel SpeedStep has an applet that works with both XP and 2000. As far as the memory goes, I just bought 1GB of PC3200 DDR RAM for my new PC for 80 dollars. I dont quite think 128 PC66 memory is quite worth 100, but it is still laptop memory (quite expensive). As I am too lazy too look it up myself, I suggest using www.impactcomputers.com or www.pricegrabber.com

Windows 2000 is definitely the choice here, as it is indeed no longer supported by our money-hungry friends at M$.

minster9

Hi all,thanx for all the responses! Thanks for the tip,laboye,impactcomputers beat 'em all on prices. Biggest reason for sudden urge for upgrade is MA88 microscope camera bought from AS&S w/cheap 'scope to examine cutting edges of various tooling in my shop & partly out of curiosity. Unit works great on my desktop[256mb,40gb,w2000] in my bedroom. Laptop [64mb,2gb,w2000] displays mssg "insuff. mem" when trying to use camera. Min. mem. not specified on box nor in manual. AS&S don't know,referred me mfr.,not specified on their site. No response yet from my e-mail[I was not nasty,I don't do that] to mfr.[Premeire]. Manual says 640x480 res.,is there like a formula to figure out req. memory? Thanks,steve

minster9

Forgot to mention,190 bucks is cheaper than something newer & faster to do what I want to do. I ain't gonna get anything on a trade-in for this old thing,it was given to me to begin with. So if I throw in a 20gb hd & 128mb ram chip for less than 200 bucks,that's still a lot cheaper than a newer used toughbook or IBM. I mean, for surfing the web or using the camera out in my workshop wirelessly,it's all I'd want. I'm not a gamer;more of a researcher. It's all obsolete every 6 mos. anyhow. Sorry for 2nd conseq. post,looked like I was running outta space. p.s. Laptop displayed 120mb free memory at bottom edge of screen when "insuff.mem." was displayed.

laboye

Glad to help, i suppose that laptop will do for what you need it for. Get that memory replaced and report those results here

kicslinks

Hi,

I am upgrading a Toughbook CF-45 for a client to 192mb of ram using a 128mb, PC100, SODIMM, SDRAM which I removed from my IBM ThinkPad some time ago. According to the Key Features of the CF-45 this is the max it can handle.

If you are interested in any additional information, such as all of the Key Features or the complete parts list, on this model, drop me a line and I'll send you what I have accrued.

Edge Memory 128MB for Panasonic Toughbook 71K CF27 CF34 CF37 CF45 CF47 CF48
(SKU: CFWMBA81128PE)

Description: 128MB for Panasonic Toughbook 71K CF27 CF34 CF37 CF45 CF47 CF48
Manufacturer: Edge Memory
Lowest Price: $19.28

DaveOxford

Hello Minster9,

I have a similar machine - a Panasonic CF-45 with the RAM under the HDD just as you describe - except that mine has 192 MB RAM, so I am guessing that this started life as a 64MB machine, and an extra 128 MB has been added. I'm pretty sure you can add RAM up to 192 if you can find it. However, the spec on mine is a bit different. It says TO664ZA on the plate on the bottom. It has a five or six meg disk, and runs at 266.

I'm astonished to find that I can run XP on it, but v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. It takes about seven minutes to load, but if you use the sleep function and leave it plugged into a power supply, it comes to life again with everything up and running in about thirty seconds. Obviously it's not a gaming machine, and I won't be editing any digital film footage, but it seems to be doing everything else well enough.

I think I got the handbook in pdf form from the Panasonic site - if you can't find it, I can send the one I have to you if you post your email address. This refers to a part of the handbook (that comes with the original machine) that tells you how to instal extra RAM, so don't give up your search just yet.

BTW, I agree with you about the quality of these old Toughbooks. They are a cut above my kids' Dells. I've never come across such a bright screen on any other computer.

Dave

minster9

thanks for posting,dave. the model no. of my cf-45 is different than yours,having a 233mhz cpu & a 64 mb ram chip originally,but I did find & install a 128mb ram chip for about 85 bucks. It's a EDO-SODIMM,predates PC66 standard.Really speeded up the laptop,camera works now;not enough room on old 2gb hd to save even 1 picture,though. So I'm gonna put in a 40gb hd [52 bucks from newegg] & see what happens. Some on this site say it'll work,others disagree. Thanks for your comments!

crazijoe

Hello,
I don't know if this info will help any but I have a couple of Twinhead Slimnote P266s circa 1998. The max memory supported is 128MB, which I have 2x 64MB sticks in the 2 slots. Max HD size is 8GB. Put any bigger drive in there and it will only show as a 8GB. This is probably due to the LBA addressing in the BIOS and it has the latest BIOS. I currently have Win2K on it but opted not to run any AV software because of the limited resource. Sitting idle it will use approx 81MB of memory. When I loaded AVG free it sat at 95MB of memory. Open out a couple of web pages and bam, it started paging. I basically use it for couch websurfing, not much more.

DaveOxford

Hi Minster9,

Let us know how the 40 gig experiment goes.

Dave